Date Night - The Compass

The Rules of Date Night

Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ about a year ago when we were still living in Tollcross. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘Date Night’.

The Rules of Date Night;
Once a month after pay day.
Must be local (walking distance from the flat).
We take turns on who pays.
When he is paying I choose the location.
When I’m paying he chooses the location.
We never go to the same place twice for date night.

About the Compass Bar and Restaurant

The Compass Bar is in the heart of Leith on the corner of Queen Charlotte Street and Constitution Street. It's recently had a refurb and they have extended the old bar to include a restaurant at the back. The new space is full of great lighting, exposed brick work and massive art work giving it an airy New York Loft feel.

The Compass Bar pride themselves on using locally sourced and seasonal ingredients so the menu is constantly changing, they have also recently expanded their selection of wines and craft ales behind the bar. All the food is made to order in the kitchen that you can see right into at the back of the restaurant.

I wore my new Dorothy Perkins black and white stripped Bardot style dress with my Denim jacket and now Resin Rainbow earings and matching brooch. I love this outfit, its so comfy and easy to dress up and down.

The Food and Drinks

Martyn and I arrived and were directed through to the restaurant from the cosy welcoming bar, we were met by our waitress and offered a selection of tables and I choose one near the kitchen where we could see the whole place. The menus that we were given were different to the one we'd looked at online*, we were a little disappointed we'd not get to try the Spiced Veterinarian Haggis and Cous Cous burger but there were still plenty of tasty options.

We ordered our drinks, I went for a pint of Innes & Gunn that they have on tap in the bar and Martyn had a blackcurrant and lemonade. After a fair bit of debating about the menu we finally decided on the Halloumi, Red Pepper and Pesto burger for me and Martyn went for the BBQ burger, they both came with chunky chips. My burger was amazing! It was total Halloumi karma after our last date night at Pera, there were 2 or 3 chunky slices of cheese with juicy, sweet grilled red peppers and delicious fresh basil pesto. The chunky chips were thick cut, fluffy in the middle and crispy on the outside. Maryn's burger was huge, larger than the brioche bun it was served in, dripping with BBQ sauce and Cheese and filled with Bacon. We were both very happy with our mains and decided to have a peek and the dessert menu.

After Dinner Delights

It doesn't take much to convince us to have dessert and looking at the menu we spied a couple of our favorites. I ordered the Apple Pie with Custard and Martyn chose the Lemon Cheese Cake that came with a Berry compote. The Apple Pie was lovely, lots of thing layers of sliced apple with a sweet cinnamon flavour and lattice pastry top, the custard came in a separate wee pot which meant Martyn got to try some pie before I smothered it in the custard. Mayrtn enjoyed his cheese cake and it was delicious and creamy and was a huge piece but it wasn't lemon. I think they must have run out or confused it with a vanilla one, either way it was delicious and had a buttery biscuit base. 

Once we had settled our bill we wondered through to the bar area and decided to stop for a last drink before heading up the road. They have a good selection of spirits behind the bar, we opted for a Gentleman Jack for Martyn and a Tia Maria for me, I'm going through a Tia Maria and Coke phase - I think its the cold snap were having and its nice and warming. We found bar stools and a table in the corner and enjoyed our drinks. 

Round up and Atmosphere

The Compass is a really nice bar and restaurant, it looked as though you can eat in the cosy bar as well as the more formal restaurant area which would be lovely in the evening by the fireplace. The atmosphere is relaxed and the staff were attentive and friendly, especially the bar lady. It won points with Martyn as they are also dog friendly too. 

We'd defiantly go back with friends for an afternoon pub lunch or even brunch, they do a fully veggie breakfast!  

They are very good at keeping their Facebook and Twitter up to date with their specials and daily deals so its worth checking them out too.

If you head down let me know what you think! 

xxx

*Looking now the link to the menu we looked at is out of order.

Golden Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

If you follow my Instagram feed you’ll have seen I’ve been reaping the rewards of the school’s fruit and veg patch. We have raspberries and rhubarb coming out of our ears, the blueberries are on the turn and we spotted potatoes the other day! A couple weeks ago we spotted veggies in a planter box too, I pulled two golden beetroots on Tuesday and had no clue what to do with them. I’m not a beetroot fan really but it seems to be one of those ‘on trend’ super food veggies so I keep trying it, but really it just tastes like dirt. We did a little research into the golden variety in the office (summer holidays are a very busy time for us…) and apparently golden beetroot taste less earth than the usual run of the mill purple beetroot. After quite a bit of trawling through Pinterest, as you’ll see on my ‘Things I want in mytummy’ board, I decided to go with the faithful goats cheese and beetroot tart. I used inspiration from several recipes for my creation and a little of my own flare.

All you need is:

2 Golden beetroots

200g of Soft goats cheese

1 Packet of ready-made puff pastry (pre-rolled or block)

1 Egg - whisked

Runny honey

Fresh basil

Salt and Pepper (the seasoning not the 80’s all-female rap group)

A little flour

Preheat the oven at about 200 °C or gas mark 6.

Raw and ready to go! 

The first thing you need to do is get the beetroots roasting. Start by slicing the greens off, rub them in some olive oil and wrap them individually in tin foil and pop them in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until you can slide a knife in easily. Take them out and unwrap them to let them cool.

Next get your surface floured for rolling out or unrolling your pastry, you want it nice and thin. I went with a rectangle but you could be more adventurous with circles, heart shapes or even polygons, go wild! I don’t have a very large baking tray so I halved it and made two tarts. Before you start topping the tart you will want to transfer it onto your lightly floured baking tray, moving it once it’s loaded up is not easy.

Nicely roasted, isn't this bowl beautiful?

Brush your egg wash over the pastry, and scatter/spread about 2 thirds of the goats cheese on top. Now back to the beets, they should have cooled down a bit by now and you should be able to rub the skin off, it’s really easy and surprisingly satisfying too. Then you want to either careful slice your beets with a knife or if you are lucky, like me, then slice them up with a mandolin. This is when you really see how golden they are and see the beautiful layers. 

Look at those rings! 

Now you want to top the goats cheese with the beetroot slices, I went with simple over lapping lines. Finish off by crumbling the last of the goats cheese over the top and season with the salt and pepper. Pop it in the oven on the middle shelf for 20 minutes or until the pastry has a nice colour to it.

The basil on the window sill, where The Doctor is currently living...

Tah Da! All you need to do now is dribble a little honey and sprinkle some fresh basil leaves over the top and you’re good to go.

Golden Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

Bon appetite!  

Leith Market Adventure

Well its finally time for my first blog post. It’s taken me a while to get the guts to start writing and get organised. My first article is about our trip to the Leith Market.

A little background for you guys – Martyn (my bearded companion) and I have recently moved in together after going out for about a year. We have a fab wee place just of Leith Walk and we’ve decided to make the most of the local area but finding a free weekend if very nearly impossible. I’d found out about the market at Dock Place from one of my colleagues, it’s right by her flat. I already enjoy a trip to the Sunday Stockbridge Market but often forgot about it or was too wrapped up in Sunday Bruch to make it down the road.

Leith market only started on the 11^th of July and we were away then and by some miracle we found ourselves without plans his weekend. I proposed the plan during the week, which involved food so Martyn was in, and Saturday afternoon arrived and we headed down. It was a pretty sunny but windy day so I donned my vintage polka dot navy dress, new white sandals from Primark and my vintage woven straw bag, it’s nice and big for produce and off we went. The market is about a 20 minute walk from the flat, though Leith and to the shore.

The Market is at Dock Place by Customs House down at the shore, there were several stalls, not as many as it’s Stockbridge counterpart but I hopefully it’ll grow as it becomes more popular. We arrived just before 2pm so the hot food stalls and vans were busy with people eating amazing looking food around them, there was Mexican, African and the French creperie. The makers stalls were buzzing with prints, crafty trinkets and brick-a-brac, I saw some adorable vintage handbags. The show stoppers were the fruit and veg and bakery stalls, we bought some lovely nectarines,  eyed up some amazing looking brownies and bagged a couple of very tasty pastries from Au Gourmand. Perthshire Preserves were there with their award winning jams and chutneys, I’ve had their spiced plum and apple chutney before and their hot banana chutney has to be tasted, Delish! We also grabbed a jar of Chipotle Ketchup from Gusto Artisan Foods, it’s smoky, sweet with a little kick at the end.

All in all our trip was a great success! I would definitely recommend having a wonder down and checking it out. I’m already looking forward to heading back and sampling some of the food stalls, particularly the Mexican food and the brownies, possibly checking if the handbags are still there.

Leith Market - Saturdays from 10am until 5pm - Dock Place EH6 6LU -Website